Chapter 5

A large, silver car drove down Nigel and Rachel's street. Kuki sat behind the wheel, her apparent excitement making her bounce around in her seat. "I'm just so excited!" She looked back at her four children. "Aren't you guys excited? Nigel hates surprises!" To this comment she received an eye roll from her husband and three toothy, and one toothless, grins.

"Kooks, it's just a little get together. Nothing to spaz out about," Wally replied, even though he knew full well that nothing would calm down his wife.

They drove past the Uno's large, but not too large, yellow house. They were parking at the neighbors so Nigel would not know they were over. A small, blue car and a forest green Jeep sat in the driveway of Nigel and Rachel's house. "Oh good," Kuki smiled. "Nigel's not here, that means we're not late!"

Wally stared at her. "Of course we're not cruddy late! We left 35 minutes early!"A chorus of tiny giggles sounded from the backseat. Kuki gave him a dirty look. He climbed out of the car to help Kuki get their youngest two children out of their car seats. Kaida and Emi had already unbuckled themselves and gotten out of the car, just as excited about the party as their mother.

Wally lifted nine-month old Max out of his car seat carefully. "There you go, tyke. Now we'll just go sit around for forever before Nigel shows up." He began walking towards the house, hoping that Kuki, who was fussing with Violet and the diaper bag, could hear him babbling to their only son. "Doesn't that sound like fun? Daddy thinks that sounds like heaps of fun and so does Mommy apparently."

Hoagie finished strapping Augie into the backseat and then turned to face Abby. He looked at her suspiciously. "Are you absolutely, positively, 100 percent sure that you feel alright? You look a little tired. We can go late, ya know. You can take a nap for an hour or so if you want." He placed a hand on her belly.

"Hoagie, get in the car," Abby sighed. "I feel fine and we are going to the party. Right now." Abby opened the door of their car and, with some struggling, got herself inside. So she'd had some pains today. Big deal. Abby wasn't going to panic about something like that. She pressed a hand to the right side of her belly.

"Are we ready for lift-off?" Hoagie asked, smiling at Abby from the driver's seat.

"Did you remember the gift?" Abby squirmed around in her seat, trying to get comfortable

Hoagie's cheeks reddened. "I'll be back in one sec. I'm just gonna run inside really quick." He hopped out of the car and ran back into their small house.

Abby sighed. Sometimes she needed Hoagie, but in most cases, it was Hoagie who needed her. Even when she was a child, Abby didn't like when other people took care of her. As she got older, she learned that sometimes you had to let other people step in. Sometimes, Hoagie was almost too helpful. It was times like this that made up for it.

Nigel took Palmer's hand. "Now, Palm, where exactly is your sister?" He glanced down at the little boy. It had been much too long of a day for Nigel. Of course, it had been nice to spend the day with Olivia and Palmer, but he was tired. Nigel looked forward to a nice, quiet dinner with his family and then heading to bed with his beautiful wife.

Palmer looked up at his father and shrugged.

"Well, we'll just have to take a look around, won't we?" Nigel tried not to let his son's lack of speech bother him. He felt that if they just let Palmer figure things out on his own, he would talk eventually. However, Nigel wasn't opposed to Rachel taking their son to see all those doctors; he knew that was what his wife needed to do to feel hopeful.

After a few minutes, Nigel found Olivia. The 5 year old was talking to another little girl. Their heads were bent in towards each other, as they whispered. Nigel coughed. Olivia's blonde hair spun out as her head turned. She pushed her sunglasses atop her head. "Oh! Hi Daddy! Are we leaving?"

Nigel smiled at his daughter. "Sorry, sweetheart. We've got to head back for dinner."

The little girl got up and waved to her friend. She skipped off ahead of her brother and father. "Was that one of your friends from school?" Nigel asked.

Olivia giggled as if that was ridiculous. "No, Daddy. She's a cadet like me."

"A cadet. How cool." To be honest, Nigel had no idea what his daughter was talking about. These sorts of things only added to his beliefs that he had finally, at the age of 31, become old. He unlocked the car and his children climbed in. Olivia smoothed her skirt and buckled her seat belt. Palmer looked expectedly up at his dad; he needed Nigel to buckle his seat belt.

"Did you want to ask Daddy to buckle you?"

Palmer's eyes widened, he made no motion to ask for Nigel's help. Nigel gave in and buckled up the 3 year old.

"Yeah, Daddy, a cadet. You might not see me around so much after school. Because I'll be training," Olivia paused, "at the Arctic training base! And there's this boy there that's a lot like Patton and…"

Nigel let his daughter's voice wash over him as he drove. Sometimes he wondered if the reason Palmer didn't speak was because Olivia spoke just so much. This was something that apparently she got from him, according to Rachel. But, he supposed Palmer needed someone to be his voice and Olivia was very good at that.

As they approached the house, Nigel noticed that Fanny's car was parked in the driveway. The exact middle of it, leaving Nigel no room to park. Typical Fanny, not taking anyone else into consideration. Nigel shook his head and went to go park at the neighbor's until Fanny would come out and move the obnoxiously large Jeep.

Nigel and Rachel's next door neighbor was an old woman that rarely left the house. She had her groceries delivered and her children often came by to bring her other things and check on her. In her driveway, there was a large silver SUV and a small blue car. Nigel recognized these cars as Kuki's and Hoagie's, but they would have no reason to be at his neighbor's. "Auntie Kuki is here!" Olivia shrieked, noticing the car as well.

"I don't think so, Livi, someone must just have the same car as Kuki," Nigel replied.

"Sure, Daddy," Olivia smiled.

A/N: I don't much like this chapter, but obviously it was necessary to get everyone to the party. It's just a filler really. I'm feeling 2 or 3 more chapters. And, my friends, things will go down, I promise. Oh, and if anyone has suggestions for Abby's baby's name, hook me up :) Thanks!